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Overview

Overview

OBJECTIVE

Eight-year-old Connor Michalek meets WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan at a WWE Live Event in Pittsburgh, Pa. in early 2014.

WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon and her husband WWE Executive of Talent, Live Events and Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque are strong supporters of pediatric cancer care and research at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Stephanie and Paul became involved with Children’s Hospital in 2014, when they met WWE fan Connor Michalek.

Connor, 8, was battling medulloblastoma, a rare tumor that affects the brain and spinal cord. Connor formed a special connection with Stephanie and Paul, as well as numerous WWE Superstars and Divas, while attending WWE events with his family in early 2014, including WWE WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans.

When Connor lost his battle with medulloblastoma in April 2014, Stephanie and Paul decided to honor him by creating Connor’s Cure, a fund within Children’s Foundation at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh that supports brain tumor research.

Connor’s Cure supports research by Ian F. Pollack, M.D., chief, Pediatric Neurosurgery in the Brain Care Institute at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, including laboratory-based research and a vaccine-based immunotherapy research. Dr. Pollack is examining the efficacy of a unique immunotherapy that treats the tumor using a vaccine not entirely unlike the sort of vaccines most of us are familiar with, such as the tetanus or polio vaccines.

The Connor's Cure campaign had two primary objectives:

Raise overall awareness for pediatric cancer.

Raise funds for Connor’s Cure to support pediatric cancer research at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

About Connor

About Connor

WWE supported Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month all through September. The WWE Universe paid tribute to Connor Michalek, showing their support for pediatric cancer research with their donations to Connor's Cure.

STRATEGY & EXECUTION

In order to effectively achieve the campaign objectives, WWE’s strategy was an integrated, 360 degree approach that utilized all of the company’s global assets. These included WWE Network and WWE’s television programming, digital and social platforms, live events, merchandise sales, WWE talent, employee communications and media relations.

Viewer tweets displayed in the lower third scroll that pertained to Connor’s Cure.

WWE Network Integration

Beginning Tuesday, September 1-Wednesday, September 30, WWE Network aired public service announcements featuring WWE Superstars and Divas in support of Connor’s Cure and pediatric cancer awareness month.

WWE Live Event Integration:

Public service announcements were also shown during all 18 live events in the month of September.

Featured content on WWEcommunity.com throughout the month of September.

WWE App promotion.

Email blast to WWE Universe. (fan database)

Employee Communication Integration

WWE activated this campaign with its more than 800 employees and portfolio of business partners.

Gold bracelets and promotional post card distributed to all employees.

Email communication with Connor’s Cure details distributed to all employees.

Media Relations:

Press Release detailing Connor’s Cure

Connor’s Cure media coverage included:

Elvis Duran and the Morning Show

Time

ESPN

Sports Illustrated

USA Today

FOX Sports

Muscle & Fitness

OK! Magazine

Local Pittsburgh media

The Warrior Award

The Warrior Award

THE WARRIOR AWARD

WWE named Connor Michalek the first-ever recipient of The Warrior Award, presented each year at the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The Warrior Award is given to someone who has exhibited unwavering strength and perseverance, and who lives life with the courage and compassion that embodies the indomitable spirit of WWE Hall of Famer, The Ultimate Warrior. The award was presented by The Ultimate Warrior’s widow, Dana Warrior, and WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan™ to Steve Michalek, Connor’s father.

The WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony aired live on Saturday, March 28 on WWE Network at 8 p.m. ET. USA Network also broadcasted a one-hour special highlighting the ceremony on Monday, March 30.

Our Results

Our Results

OUR RESULTS

Led by WWE Chief Brand officer Stephanie McMahon, WWE utilized its global assets including WWE Network, TV, Live Events, and digital and social media to raise awareness and funds for Connor’s Cure.

To date, WWE has raised more than $850,000 for Connor’s Cure and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. WWE raised more than $200,000 and generated over 1 billion media impressions during Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month this September.

Additionally, WWE generated more than 46 million impressions during the cross-promotion with Ellen Degeneres’s #JustKeepDancing initiative.

Connor’s Cure social promotion was one of the most engaging WWE campaigns to date with 827K engagements across all platforms. On their own, WWE fans engaged with Connor’s Cure by posting pictures with the bracelet, photo montages and personalized art that they created and shared.

WWE sold nearly 17,000 bracelets in the month of September through WWEshop.com and in-venue sales raising $84,000 in funds.

Nearly 10 million viewers were reached through broadcast support, including announcer mentions, lower thirds, packages and airings of WWE-produced PSAs during the month of September.

An additional 50,000 viewers were reached through WWE Network during the month of September .

An additional 165,000 people were exposed to PSA’s through all 18 live events in the month of September.

5 million people were reached through WWE’s Times Square Billboard advertisements that ran 14 times during the month of December.

About WWE

About WWE

ABOUT WWE

WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment.

The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms.

WWE programming reaches more than 650 million homes worldwide in 35 languages. WWE Network, the first-ever 24/7 over-the-top premium network that includes all 12 live pay-per-views, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library, is currently available in more than 170 countries.

The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Munich and Tokyo. Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.